Ron Beaufort
Lifetime Supporting Member
personally I'm not really "into" tractors - but here's another tractor-related post that I made a couple of years ago ...
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=628036&postcount=8
anyway ...
my reason for starting this current thread was speculating on how long it might be before some automation customer tries going to court to gain access to the "protected" PLC code in his automated factory ...
I've had to inform quite a few of my potential customers that they would be wasting their money to send their maintenance workers to a training class on their ControlLogix systems - since the vendor who wrote the program refuses to give them access to the code ...
I've heard that some companies are now insisting (in the specifications of the initial contract) that ALL of the code must be open and accessible - or "no deal" ...
oh, and by the way, and they want it ALL written in "plain vanilla" good old-fashioned ladder logic too ...
FULL DISCLOSURE: I make a decent living teaching maintenance workers how to decipher Structured Text, Function Block Diagrams, Sequential Function Charts, Equipment Phases - and so on ... so personally I say if a programmer wants to use those techniques then "bring it on" ($$$) ... I'm just reporting what I'm hearing more and more from the maintenance managers out in the trenches who are trying to keep their plants' machinery running to fulfill those "Just In Time" orders ...
for any beginners who don't understand what "Just In Time" manufacturing is - it means that a manufacturer doesn't produce any "extra" product and store it on a warehouse shelf ... instead, the company waits until a customer orders the product - and then they make the product and ship it out "Just In Time" ... so ... the "Just In Time" manufacturing system is sort of like "Socialism" - in that both plans seem to make perfect sense "on paper" - but they both tend to suffer in their execution ... specifically, "Just In Time" only works WHEN THE MACHINERY WORKS ... and whenever the machinery suddenly quits working (often at 3:00 o'clock in the morning) - the company doesn't just lose an "order" - they lose a CUSTOMER - who incidentally NEEDS that order so that he can make HIS "Just In Time" system work ... and the poor plant maintenance manager now has a devil of a time explaining to his regional manager WHY the valued customer has been lost ...
so ...
I'm just wondering how long it will be before manufacturing companies begin legal proceedings to gain access to automation code that their vendors have "locked up" ... the part in the original news article about eight states currently considering legislation to "invalidate" the signed John Deere contracts was the part that I personally found to be the most intriguing part of the story ...
party on ...
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=628036&postcount=8
anyway ...
my reason for starting this current thread was speculating on how long it might be before some automation customer tries going to court to gain access to the "protected" PLC code in his automated factory ...
I've had to inform quite a few of my potential customers that they would be wasting their money to send their maintenance workers to a training class on their ControlLogix systems - since the vendor who wrote the program refuses to give them access to the code ...
I've heard that some companies are now insisting (in the specifications of the initial contract) that ALL of the code must be open and accessible - or "no deal" ...
oh, and by the way, and they want it ALL written in "plain vanilla" good old-fashioned ladder logic too ...
FULL DISCLOSURE: I make a decent living teaching maintenance workers how to decipher Structured Text, Function Block Diagrams, Sequential Function Charts, Equipment Phases - and so on ... so personally I say if a programmer wants to use those techniques then "bring it on" ($$$) ... I'm just reporting what I'm hearing more and more from the maintenance managers out in the trenches who are trying to keep their plants' machinery running to fulfill those "Just In Time" orders ...
for any beginners who don't understand what "Just In Time" manufacturing is - it means that a manufacturer doesn't produce any "extra" product and store it on a warehouse shelf ... instead, the company waits until a customer orders the product - and then they make the product and ship it out "Just In Time" ... so ... the "Just In Time" manufacturing system is sort of like "Socialism" - in that both plans seem to make perfect sense "on paper" - but they both tend to suffer in their execution ... specifically, "Just In Time" only works WHEN THE MACHINERY WORKS ... and whenever the machinery suddenly quits working (often at 3:00 o'clock in the morning) - the company doesn't just lose an "order" - they lose a CUSTOMER - who incidentally NEEDS that order so that he can make HIS "Just In Time" system work ... and the poor plant maintenance manager now has a devil of a time explaining to his regional manager WHY the valued customer has been lost ...
so ...
I'm just wondering how long it will be before manufacturing companies begin legal proceedings to gain access to automation code that their vendors have "locked up" ... the part in the original news article about eight states currently considering legislation to "invalidate" the signed John Deere contracts was the part that I personally found to be the most intriguing part of the story ...
party on ...
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